The Battle of the Biggest Bookmark and more....

I never fought over anything stupid when I was a kid. At least not that I remember. My mom assures me that we all fought over dumb things.

I am not writing this to put down my kids at all. They are great kids. I'm writing this because I'm pretty sure there's a lot of over parents out there that can totally relate to the silly things kids fight over.

We are trying to consistently read scriptures with our kids every night. We have a stack of scriptures that I got off the clearance bin at Deseret Book that we keep together for family scripture study. Several weeks back, Rachel discovered that Caleb had a bigger bookmark in his scriptures. The bookmarks are just index cards that I've ripped in pieces. Well, Rachel snuck and took his bookmark because she thought it was bigger. So then Caleb took it back. And the battle went back and forth a few times. Tonight, Rachel decided to "one-up" Caleb. She found the index cards and got herself a new, whole index card. So, what do you think Caleb did? He got himself a whole card. But then he realized that his was now the same size and not bigger. So he decided to tape some index cards together. That way he would have a giant bookmark. After some time out, and probably not the best scripture study time, the kids cooled off and went to bed. Guess what?? Tomorrow I am going to buy some real bookmarks. And they are all going to be identical. Either that or we are going to have to rotate who gets the biggest bookmark, just like we have to rotate who gets the favorite seat in the van. Probably next, they will find something else to fight over at scripture study time. They've already fought over who gets to read more verses. So we always make them read the same number of verses.

On a positive note, today was Stake Conference. I usually dread Stake Conference because it is so hard to battle the kids for two hours.
In all the years we've been married, we've never gone to the adult session on Saturday night. Yesterday, Dan stayed home with the kids, and I went by myself. I really enjoyed listening to talks without any distractions. Today, we went to the regular session of conference. For the first time in 10 years, we did not have to take our kids out in the hall at all. If you know Alex, this is actually quite a miracle. He doesn't even sit through regular church. I am really thankful that I got to hear two entire meetings.

Today while we were driving, our kids were pointing out the beautiful blue sky. They all had a different spot in the sky that was their favorite. It was amazing how many shades of blue were in the sky at the same time. Its been a long time (partly due to the smog) since I have seen such an awesome sky!

A Book

I love being a mother. I wouldn't trade it for anything. For those of you who know me well, and are my friends on facebook, you may notice I post a lot of mischievious things that Alex does.

For a while, he tried to flush everything we owned down the toilet. He has tried to run away a few times. Not because he wants to escape home, but because he is looking for a new adventure. He experimented with outlets. (childproofing doesn't work on highly intelligent children). He still turns off the furnace at least once a week. He has drawn more murals on the wall than any child. I don't remember all the things he has done.

His lastest fascination is toothpaste. He has gotten into at least 3 tubes in the last 24 hours. Why don't we put them away, you ask? We do. He is an awesome climber. He can get into everything in the house except the medicine cupboard, cleaning closet, and on top of the fridge. I guess we need to move the toothpaste to the medicine cupboard. Tonight while I was washing dishes, he got into another tube. He smeared it everywhere on himself and in the bathroom. Then, while washing himself up, he flooded the bathroom sink. He also got toothpaste all over me when I went into the bathroom to clean him and the disaster up. Dan noticed that I had Aquafresh all over my pants when he walked in the door.

Dan bought me a book tonight off the library .50 sale table. It was a children's book especially for me. It is called "No, David". The little boy gets into all sorts of trouble. Rachel wanted us to cross out the "David" and write "Alex". At the end, the mom says, "I love you, David". It reminded me of how much I really love Alex. It cheered me up.

At the end of the day, no matter what my kids do, I love them so much. While I may vent my frustration a bit, I really love my kids. I wouldn't trade my little trouble-maker for anything in the world.

Listening to the still small voice......

Throughout my life there have been a variety of times when I have listened to the "still small voice". There have also been times when I haven't listened.
Yesterday evening, we had a ward function. As I was packing up the diaper bag to go, I had the thought that I should pack an extra set of clothes for Seth. Seth is my 2 year-old nephew that was staying with us for the weekend. I quickly dismissed the thought because we were only go to the church, which was a mile away. We were only going to be gone for an hour. Not long after we arrived at the church, Seth had a major diaper blowout. It is bad enough when it is your own kid...I won't ramble on this one. Needless to say, for the rest of the ward function, he only had a shirt and a clean diaper on. (Don't worry, I cleaned him up really well). In the grand scheme of things, did it really matter? No. But it was a lesson to me that I should listen.

When I was a teenager, my Dad built an apartment for my grandpa in the large garage behind their house. We enjoyed having him there. I would stop off and say hi after I parked my car in the driveway near the apartment. One Easter morning, I had the distinct feeling that I should go stop in and say "hello" to my grandpa before church. I mentioned to my mom that I was thinking I would go out and say hello. She said that he wasn't feeling well. So, I decided that I would just visit him later. While we were at church that day, my grandpa passed away. I never got that last chance to visit him. While that was so long ago, I regret that I did not listen to the still small voice.

Today I have been thinking about this. I hope I can do better and always listen to the still small voice.